your thoughts on metric

I am getting a bit fed-up with the 15/32...13/64... and the rest of the crap measurements we use here. Why shouldn't I go to what the rest of the world uses? Metric. Please no political BS. Seems like using 10's is a lot easier.No I'm not too old to change (62).

Reply to
Lee
Loading thread data ...

| Why shouldn't I go to what the | rest of the world uses? Metric.

No reason not to. If you do, then I'll join you as soon as I can by metric sized tools, bits, wood, etc at a better price than I can buy inch sizes...

-- Morris Dovey DeSoto Solar DeSoto, Iowa USA

formatting link

Reply to
Morris Dovey

Reply to
Lee

Not looking at tools etc. Looking at replacing fractional US measurements "Morris Dovey" > No reason not to. If you do, then I'll join you as soon as I can by

Reply to
Lee

I grew up with metric. A 10cm x 10cm Cube of water weighs a kilo and is a litre as well. (At 4C) Then, after I graduated high school in The Netherlands, I came to Canada. Inches and feet and pounds and gallons..then baaaaack again to metric.

Now I buy my meat by the pound, my gas by the litre and my solid surface sheets 30 INCHES by 12 FEET. Half of a quarter is an eigth. 30+ degrees C is not hot, 90 F is hot.

2 pints of beer is not a lot, a litre is. A ton is as heavy as a tonne, as far as I am concerned, and the whole world should switch over to smidgens and tiches.
Reply to
Robatoy

Time is on the side of metric.

40 years ago when the metric change was proposed, the investment in tooling, supplies, supporting infrastructure in the USA was tremendous.

Today a lot of that investment has become obsolete or consumed.

The change today would be easier, tomorrow easier yet.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

I will as soon as I can buy a 11.90625 millimeter and 5.159375 millimeter socket (respectively).

Reply to
Nova

Your missing my point. I am talking about using metric in the current time for measuring...not replacing what we have now when it comes to tools "Nova" wrote in > I will as soon as I can buy a

11.90625 millimeter and 5.159375
Reply to
Lee

on 10/11/2007 6:12 PM Lee said the following:

I'm with you. My math is a lot better with 10s, 100s, and 1000s, than cups, pints, ounces, quarts, gallons, inches, feet, yards, etc. My kids were learning metric in school 40 years ago in anticipation of a change that never happened. Like Professional Soccer, which never gained a hold, despite stars like Pele. What makes it worse is that some here in the US are using metric, like in the scientific world. I think the main reason not to change is to maintain a link with the UK. I know that a meter is about 39 inches, but that's about it. I'm tired of having to possess both SAE and metric tools to work on my cars. Even foreign cars built here in the US have metric bolts, nuts, and screws. Keep the Fahrenheit scale tho. I'm 70, but I can change.

Reply to
willshak

I'm with you man. I use metric all day long at work: grams and liters. I hate the inch, foot BS.

I still don't understand why I buy soda by the liter and milk by the gallon though??

Reply to
GarageWoodworks

We use metric measurement in the business of plywood/film faced plywood/blockboard/MDF/Hardboard and so on .All our plywood businesses were finished by using metric measurement, even if we do business with US, UK or Ca customers . All our customers from Europe, Africa, Middle East, other Asian countries use metric measurement .

Reply to
Mason Pan

So, do what you want. What are you measuring and why would it make any difference to anyone else but you?

Me, I'm same age, trained as engineer so mks are familiar in their place, but for day-to-day usage, British measurements are just what "comes naturally". For measuring in woodworking a 64th is more than adequate for virtually any and everything, a 32nd is usually good enough except for matching joints where to make things easy one generally uses a marking gauge and transfer marks, not actual physical measurements, anyway. For estimating, I _know_ what an inch is in terms of a length of particular finger joint, eight inches is a convenient spread, lots of practice lets me pace of a yard pretty doggone accurately, ... Any of those in even cgs units is something I'd have to start over at age 8 to have a hope of learning with such fluency. No point in it as far as I can see...

$0.02, ymmv, etc., of course, ...

Reply to
dpb

Yes, and those companies that made tools, now could sell twice as many tools than if there was only one measurement. "A set of SAE wrenches and a set of Metric wrenches, please."

Reply to
willshak

Lee wrote: : I am getting a bit fed-up with the 15/32...13/64... and the rest of the crap : measurements we use here. Why shouldn't I go to what the rest of the world : uses? Metric. Please no political BS.

:Seems like using 10's is a lot easier.

A common thought about metric, and a fallacy as far as I'm concerned. It's easier to divide and multiply by multiples of 10 in metric, but so what? "Jeez, I think the overhang on that tabletop looks a bit scanty, so I think I'll try ten times more"? "Heck, that shelf is too long. Better try a tenth that length and see how it looks"?

If you think about it, imperial measurements (in 16ths and 12ths) have more integral divisors (2, 3, 4, 6, 8) than metric ones do (2 and 5).

Plus, the imperial units correspond better to humanscale proportions (as le Corbusier and othr designers discovered when they switched ou of metric).

It's inches, feet, yards, furlongs, cubits, and barleycorns for me.

A pint's a pound, the world round.

-- Andy Barss

Reply to
Andrew Barss

Mason Pan wrote: : We use metric measurement in the business of plywood/film faced : plywood/blockboard/MDF/Hardboard and so on .All our plywood businesses were : finished by using metric measurement, even if we do business with US, UK or : Ca customers .

Aren't "metric" plywood sheets something like 1200 x 2400 millimeters, which is oddly very close to four by eight feet?

And aren't bords in Europe sold in 2.4 meter lengths? Not a natural unit in metric.

-- Andy Barss

Reply to
Andrew Barss

Metric is to blame for 15/32" plywood -- it's the nearest Imperial approximation of whatever some overseas plywood factory is producing in metric, specifically 12 mm.

Imperial units math is really quite easy. To divide a fraction by 2, simply multiply the denominator by 2.

Reply to
Ferd Farkel

A stairbuilder I used to work with had a laminated piece of paper with a conversion table that he used. He could switch back and forth between metric and inches as he needed. I think it went to 32nds. It seemed silly to me at the time, but now I can see that it might be useful.

Reply to
spineemike

There are absolutely no valid reasons NOT to use metric. There are plenty of people afraid of change. Use it steady for a few days and you'll wonder why we did not change decades ago. We use it for our money, we use it for some beverages.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

What with China making all the tools, we're slowly indoctrinating them into the Imperial system. Then all the stuff that goes to Europe, etc., will be in FPS measurements and all will come back to that which has worked so well.

Look, MKS (Meter/Kilogram/Second) is okay for science and whatnot, but it just doesn't work for human use.

"A pint's a pound the world around" and it will be again.

Reply to
HeyBub

But it could. The conversion is what's difficult. When gasoline is sold by the liter, who gives a shit about the gallon? We'd see one gas station selling gas for 64 cents per liter and the station on the other side of the street is selling it for 69 cents, how tough is it to figure out? We will figure out that our cars can go 500 km on a tank, which will hold maybe 60 liters. It won't take all that long to become comfortable with it. If Europe was able to manage it, why the hell couldn't we? Aren't we smart enough?

Reply to
Mortimer Schnerd, RN

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.